DURESS ALARM PANIC BUTTON

Duress Alarm Panic Button

Duress alarm systems are sometimes referred to as a panic button or wireless duress alarm or wireless panic button. In commercial applications there is often a need to protect employees and staff from assault or other hazards including environmental concerns. In residential applications, persons at risk from falls or other medical problems can benefit from using a duress alarm or panic button to signal for help.

Panic buttons are available in a variety of configurations. They may have a single panic button, double button or even three or four buttons. A double button is usually employed in hold up applications such as a convenience store to avoid false alarms from accidental bumping of the pendant. Pressing both buttons is required to activate the alarm. A multiple button pendant can be used to signal varying levels of need. A judge might use a multiple pendant to signal that a situation is tense and that security personnel should "stand by" or to signal that security personnel should respond directly and immediately.

Panic buttons for duress alarm systems can be worn as a belt clip, with a neck lanyard or with a wrist band. The belt clip us normally used for employee and staff duress alarm systems. A neck lanyard or wrist band is often used for the elderly and for medical alert.

Duress alarm system can provide notification in a variety of ways. Larger systems will have a computer, usually a PC, that intercepts and processes alarms. Duress alarms can then be displayed on a monitor and a variety of other actions can be taken. The central computer can make an announcement over facility hand held radios, pagers or telephones so that the proper security personnel are notified. Smaller system are available for commercial applications that do not use a computer but they will be limited in the number of duress alarm panic buttons they can accommodate and also in the methods of alarm annunciation that are available.

Any panic button used for duress alarm system purposes should be fully supervised because lives depend on the proper functioning of the device. Wireless pendant transmitters will send a periodic check in signal to the main computer or processor. If the signal is not received according to a definable time window, a supervisory alert will be generated. Also, it is important that any wireless device report a low battery condition well in advance to the failure of the battery.

The use of spread spectrum frequency hopping radio transmission technology is ideally suited for wireless panic buttons and duress alarm systems. This technology was first developed by the military to eliminate jamming of vital radio communications. Now this is available for us to use as well. The alarm transmissions are spread over a wide band by hopping around in different frequencies. If there is interference at one frequency the signal will still get through on other frequencies. This level of dependability is not possible with narrow band single frequency systems.